Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Pre-review of "Prelude to a Super Airplane"

The following is a review for Brian Spaeth's book Prelude to a Super Airplane, which I have not read. The idea is that I'll review the book before I read it, proceed to read said book and then post a review afterwords, seeing how close I get. I've done my best to stay away from any and all spoilers, plot twists, plot and characters.

Like many of you, I started reading Brian's work over at his blog YaySports because of his ridiculous NBA photoshops and unique(ly hilarious) writing style. Thankfully, Brian didn't try to do any "branching out" and Prelude to a Super Airplane is filled with that same witty writing, awesome NBA photoshops (Ron Artest fighting an airplane? Totally awesome!), the talking snake Mamba and of course, the Orange Roundie.

The best part of the book (by far) was Spaeth's highly original use of airplanes. The title is both dead on and a bit of a misnomer, as the airplane is ridiculously super but the word prelude is simply tacked on for show.

And that airplane is awesome. I don't want spoil anything, but this thing is 47 stories tall and kicks total ass (again, it fights Ron Artest in a hilarious photoshop montage). The characters are all fully developed and the story is gutwrenchingly true to life.

Unfortunately, Brian falls victim to many of the short falls of most blogging authors. I assumed Brian was joking when he said he wrote the book in just seven days, but now I'm not so sure. The book is riddled with spelling errors and is filled with words that I'm pretty sure he made up himself (and not in a good way, like in fantasy books).

If I have one complaint with Prelude to a Super Airplane, it's that it's too long. With the elaborate plot, large cast of characters and long, drawn out explanations on how a 47 story airplane actually works, you can easily find yourself confused. I recommend keeping a pad and paper next to your beside while you read, to jot down notes so you can keep up.

All in all, I highly recommend Prelude to a Super Airplane. It's funny, it's intelligent and the characters are really easy to relate to. You can purchase copies of Prelude to a Super Airplane here and other places (I assume).